How to store your cables

November 14, 2018

Come on, confession time: hands up if you have a tangled pile of wires somewhere in your home. Perhaps in several places? When you need a new wire, do you go and look for the old wire, or do you buy a new one but keep the old ones anyway, just in case?

Well, you are not alone! I have rarely helped someone move home who does not have one or more of these tangled piles in their home. So, what to do about it?

You probably need a spare hour; that’s right, only one hour. And you just need to divide the tangles up into similar wires. Then get some large see-through zip-lock bags from the supermarket and put together all those that are alike.

Next you’ll be wondering what they’re for? And can you get rid of them? To be honest, if you haven’t looked for any of them in months or years, you could probably get rid of all of them! But it’s best to keep at least one of each type of wire, or maybe more if your home is gadget- intensive.

If you do know what they are, use a Sharpie pen to label them. If you don’t know but want to know, this is a handy online guide. It doesn’t cover telephone wires, but you may well know those at least!

And lastly, the best thing to do is to put them in a bag of their own when you either buy the product in the first place and don’t need these particular wires, or find that they are surplus to requirement for the gadget in question. Get those bags and Sharpie pens working!